Brondesbury

2014

Sun 18 May Brondesbury Lost by 7 wickets

On a warm sunny day, KCC batted first. Openers Rohan Ghosh and Amit Shankar got things off to a good start on a decent but slow wicket, compiling 73 in 15 overs. After Amit was dismissed, Rohan and skipper Chris Ledger continued in similar vein, putting on another 67 in the next 13 overs to put KCC in a strong position at 140 for 1 with 12 overs still to bat. Once Chris and Rohan were out, however, the middle order folded rapidly, and in the end KCC only managed to reach 202 for 8, a respectable but under par score, around 30 to 40 runs short of the total that we had hoped to reach.

In reply, Brondesbury got off to a shaky start against KCC’s opening bowlers Akhi Shailendra and Wajid Tahir. Akhi, in particular, bowled beautifully, taking 2 for 18 in his allotted 8 overs. With Richard Cooke unluckily run out for a duck, following a suicidal call by his batting partner, Brondesbury’s position looked extremely perilous with 3 wickets down and not many runs on the board. But what should have been a routine KCC victory was turned into defeat by a hapless fielding performance. There were so many missed catches we lost count, but the dismal truth is that Brondesbury’s top-scoring opener alone was dropped 7 times at best, and maybe up to 9 times! The only good thing to be said from KCC’s point of view is that despite or rather because of the fielding mayhem, the game reached an exciting conclusion, with Brondesbury hitting the winning runs with just 2 balls to spare. Nonetheless, a fun day in the sun.

We were looking forward to the post-match barbecue kindly laid on by our hosts, but we got fried first on a scorchingly hot afternoon. Put into bat by the opposition (who said they needed extra hands to get the bbq going), Amit Shanker and Usman Azam struggled in the heat but manfully put on 93 for the first wicket. They were just about on their knees by the end of their knocks not least because of the very long boundary to go with a grassy outfield that required an awful lot of running between the wickets. But that start was invaluable and the middle order picked up the pace to complete the 40 overs on 203/7. The last two overs reaped 23 runs with young Aditya Khilnani in full flow.

Brondesbury thought they could light the charcoal faced with a gettable total – but Sid Chaturvedi put out the fire inside five unforgettable overs. He skittled two in his first over with fiery pace, then one in the second – and only had to wait another 14 balls before he got his fourth wicket. John Behar, coming out of self-imposed semi-retirement, turned the screws with 2/22 in his eight overs of spin. The match by then ceased to be a contest, and it was left to the leg-spin of Gabriel to mop up the tail. The burgers really tasted good, washed down with cold Cobras of course.